Burma blames Dhaka for failure to repatriate Rohingya

Yangon (AFP)

Burma on Friday accused Dacca of being responsible for the failure of another attempt to repatriate Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, who still refused, two years after the start of their mass exodus, to return home without security guarantees. .

Some 3,500 Rohingyas had been allowed to return to Burma from Thursday, if they wished. But no returning candidate has come forward so far.

To justify this failure, the Burma Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Dacca of not distributing to the prospective returnees the appropriate documents, called "verification forms", a controversial form of ID that does not allow members of this Muslim minority to obtain Burmese citizenship.

For decades, they have been denied citizenship and other civic rights by the Burmese authorities who regard them as foreigners threatening national identity.

And from August 2017, some 740,000 Rohingyas fled the abuses of the army and Buddhist militias, described as "genocide" by the UN. They have since piled into huge makeshift camp in Bangladesh. Sunday will mark the second anniversary of the beginning of this mass exodus.

They refuse to return home without satisfactory security guarantees and to be recognized as Burmese citizens in their own right.

They also fear, in case of return to Burma, to be sent to internment camps for displaced persons.

If they return, they "will find themselves in persecution," said this week to AFP Christopher Sidoti, a member of the United Nations investigation team.

Dacca, which is less and less able to manage this unprecedented migration crisis for the country, wants to unclog the camps and the refugees return to their country.

The fact that no Rohingya has been a candidate for return is "very disappointing," said Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, saying the refugees are taking the country "hostage" by insisting on their demands for citizenship.

In November 2018, a previous attempt to register 2,260 Rohingyas on a repatriation list had failed, already due to lack of security guarantees.

© 2019 AFP